Much of the content that is consumed by individuals is supported, at least in part, through advertising revenue. For example, network television shows, and, even prior to that, radio broadcasts, were funded through the sale of advertising wherein advertisers paid for the right to present advertisements to the audience of such shows and broadcasts. As another example, print media, such as magazines and newspapers, are paid by advertisers to include printed advertisements, with such advertiser payments reducing the amount subscribers of such print media would otherwise have to pay to access the content printed thereon.
Computer application programs can also be supported through advertising revenue. For example, computer application programs can be distributed by their authors without charge to users. As part of such application programs, however, users can be presented with advertisements, and the authors of such application programs can be compensated, by advertisers, for the display of such advertisements, thereby receiving compensation for their efforts in creating or improving the application programs without directly charging users to utilize such application programs.
Some application programs contain supplemental application functions that can be purchased separately from the application program itself. For example, a computer application program directed to creating computer-generated music can comprise a default set of instruments, with additional instruments being purchasable separately from the music computer application program. As another example, a drawing computer application program can comprise a default set of filters to be applied to images, with additional filters being separately purchasable from the drawing computer application program itself.